Burning a candle involves a process that imposes rather stringent requirements upon the candle body material in order to be able to maintain a flame, avoid surface pool ignition, and prevent excessive dripping or the candle body melting. When a candle is burned, the heat of the candle's flame melts a small pool of the candle body material (base material) around the base of the exposed portion of the wick. This molten material is then drawn up through and along the wick by capillary action to fuel the flame. In order to meet the stringent requirements that the candle's body material must possess, the candle should liquefy at or below temperatures to which the candle's material can be raised by radiant heat from the candle flame. If too high a temperature is required to melt the body material, the flame will be starved because insufficient fuel will be drawn up through the wick, resulting in the flame being too small to maintain itself.
On the other hand, if the candle's melting temperature is too low, the candle will drip or, in an extreme case, the entire candle body will melt, dropping the wick into a pool of molten body material, with the potential that the surface of the pool could ignite.
Additionally, in order to meet the stringent requirements upon the candle body material, when molten, the material should have a relatively low viscosity to ensure that the molten material will be capable of being drawn up through the wick by capillary action. Additional desired features may place still further demands on these already stringent requirements. For example, it is generally desirable that the candle body material burn with a flame that is both luminous and smokeless, and that the odors produced by its combustion should not be unpleasant. These features require that the composition used to make such candles meet even further physical requirements.
Furthermore, when transparent candles are desired, additional physical requirements must be met by the composition used to make such candles. Compositions that are presently known for making transparent candles typically have one or more undesirable characteristics. In particular, such compositions typically do not have enough rigidity to form a self-supporting candle, and require some type of container or external support. Such container candles generally additionally possess undesirable characteristics such as the potential for the gel compositions from which they are made shifting, for example, during shipping. Known compositions for making transparent candles also typically have an undesirable gelatinous or oily feeling. In addition, such compositions may darken or smoke during burning, which is aesthetically undesirable.
Transparent candles made from candle base materials of the prior art may also exhibit undesired external cracking and/or internal fractures. There is a need for a transparent candle with improved performance characteristics.